Singletary backs Alex, kind of

Niners coach Mike Singletary gave his first interview in a week Tuesday when he did his weekly radio show on KNBR’s Murph and Mac Show. He used the time to say all the right things about Alex Smith, without actually saying Smith would get his starting job back when healthy.

“Alex knows exactly where I stand with him on leadership,” Singletary said. “He knows exactly how I feel about him at quarterback. He knows that at the end of the day, who’s going to be the quarterback? The guy who gives us the best chance to win. And that’s as simple as that.”

Singletary said his comments about leadership before the Denver game were “misconstrued,” and that it wasn’t intended to be a shot at Smith. He spoke with Smith about it after Smith defended his leadership style to reporters Monday, the team’s first day back from a week off.

“Alex Smith is a guy who comes in, he’s going to lead by example. That’s his idea of leadership. He’s not going to be a guy that tells someone to do something, asks someone to do something. He’s going to watch film, he’s going to invite the receivers, the linemen, he’s going to invite everybody, he’s going to do that so who wouldn’t want that in a quarterback? The guy is courageous, he’s fearless, he competes. But his style of leadership, he leads by example. That’s who Alex Smith is.

So where does this leave Troy Smith, who is taking the starter’s snaps as Alex rehabs his separated non-throwing left shoulder?

“As I do with all of my players, I do my homework. I called Jim Tressel I called Ray Lewis, I called anybody that had anything to do with the kid. The first word they said was leadership. The kid’s a leader, he’ll get in your face, he’ll take charge, he’ll do all those things. When you look at our offense, when you have a Vernon Davis, you have a Michael Crabtree, and you have guys that want the ball, that’s what a receiver does. I wanted to make sure that there was somebody in the huddle that could police that, someone that could handle themselves, someone that had the poise and composure and could go out there and play a football game and give us a chance to win. That’s the bottom line.”

Ultimately, that’s what will decide which Smith starts. Singletary has an “idea” about Alex’s chances of being healthy for Sunday’s game against the visiting Rams. He stands by his decision “hand’s down” to make Alex his starter when the season started, saying there is “no question about it” despite the 0-5 start. But, he’ll give no timetable for a decision on who will start once Alex is healthy enough to play.

Just don’t call this quarterback controversy, because Singletary said this isn’t a quarterback controversy.

“You know what? Let’s just say this: Right now, the thing that I really, really want to focus on, what we do not have here is a quarterback controversy. What we have is a team that’s 2-6, that’s competing for the division. What we have is a team team coming in, St. Louis coming in Sunday, that’s where the focus is. When Alex Smith and Troy Smith and all this about leadership, at the end of the day, who’s going to help this team win? Who’s going to give us the best opportunity to win? As far as who that quarterback is going to be, we want to win, Alex wants to win, we all want to win, but the bottom line is its going to come down to who’s going to give us the chance to win?”

On a final note, here is what Singletary said when asked if he thought the defense played well enough in the first half of the season:

“When you’re 2-6, there’s a lot of things you don’t want. I think we have to work through it just like anybody else. I think we’ve earned that 2-6. When we look at the film, we understand exactly what it is that we have to do. We understand the things we need to do to get better. We understand the mistakes, everything that we’ve done in the first eight games is correctable. That’s the exciting part for me. I think we have the pieces, I think we have the people, I think we have the players, I think we have the attitude and I think we have the time. So I’m excited about all of that. I’m excited about getting out on the field as a team on Sunday and trying to win a football game.”